Sanofi and Innate Pharma expand collaboration for Natural Killer cell therapeutics in oncology

• Sanofi gains exclusive license to Innate’s B7H3 ANKET^TM program and options for two additional targets; Upon candidate selection, Sanofi will be responsible for all development, manufacturing and commercialization

•  Innate to receive €25m upfront and up to €1.35bn in total milestones plus royalties from Sanofi

Innate Pharma SA (Euronext Paris: IPH; Nasdaq: IPHA) and Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY) announced today an expansion of their collaboration, with Sanofi licensing a natural killer (NK) cell engager program targeting B7H3 from Innate’s ANKET^TM (Antibody-based NK Cell Engager Therapeutics) platform. Sanofi will also have the option to add up to two additional ANKET^TM targets. Upon candidate selection, Sanofi will be responsible for all development, manufacturing and commercialization.
 
Innate and Sanofi signed a first NK cell engagers collaboration in 2016 for the generation and evaluation of up to two bispecific NK cell engagers, which are currently being evaluated by Sanofi’s R&D team, with one of these molecules already in clinical studies.
 
Valeria Fantin, Ph.D., Global Head of Oncology Research at Sanofi
“At Sanofi, we are exploring the potential of NK cells for cancer immunotherapy, a key pillar for our oncology strategy. Our relationship with Innate aligns with our commitment to work with promising French companies and supports our ambition to develop a diverse portfolio of next-generation NK cell engagers, highly synergistic with Sanofi’s allogeneic NK cell platform, engineered lymphokines that stimulate NK cells, and growing Immuno-oncology pipeline. As a leading global company with roots in France, we are proud to collaborate to support the French healthcare ecosystem.”

Yannis Morel, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Product portfolio strategy & Business development at Innate Pharma
“Building on the success of our existing collaboration on hematologic targets, we are pleased to expand and strengthen our partnership with Sanofi on NK Cell Engagers with the addition of up to three new programs, including in solid tumors. Sanofi’s investment in Innate further validates the value of our ANKET^TM platform and its potential to address multiple tumor types. By incorporating various tumor antigen binders, NK Cell Engagers are a versatile technology that may provide new options for patients and offer clinical benefit across multiple cancers, whilst also maintaining a good safety profile. This agreement also highlights Innate’s strategy to build a broad portfolio of ANKET programs addressing different types of cancer.”

Under the terms of the new license agreement, Innate will receive €25m upfront payment and up to €1.35bn total in preclinical, clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones plus royalties on potential net sales. Closing of the transaction is subject to HSR approval.

 
About ANKET^TM

ANKET^TM (Antibody-based NK cell Engager Therapeutics) is Innate's proprietary platform for developing next-generation, multi-specific natural killer (NK) cell engagers to treat certain types of cancer.

This versatile, fit-for-purpose technology is creating an entirely new class of molecules to induce synthetic immunity against cancer.  It leverages the advantages of harnessing NK cell effector functions against cancer cells and also provides proliferation and activation signals targeted to NK cells.

Our latest innovation, the tetra-specific ANKET molecule, is the first NK cell engager technology to engage activating receptors (NKp46 and CD16), a tumor antigen and an interleukin-2 receptor (via an IL-2 variant, IL-2v) via a single molecule. 

About 2016 Sanofi/Innate research collaboration and licensing agreement

In 2016, Sanofi and Innate entered into a research collaboration and licensing agreement for the generation and evaluation of up to two bispecific NK cell engagers, using technology from Innate Pharma and Sanofi’s proprietary bispecific antibody format as well as tumor targets. 

A Phase 1/2 clinical trial by Sanofi is ongoing, evaluating IPH6101/SAR’579 (SAR443579), the first NKp46/CD16-based CD123-targeted ANKET^TM NK cell engager, in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (R/R AML), B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (HR-MDS). 

In the summer 2022, Sanofi had made the decision to progress IPH6401/SAR’514 (SAR445514) into investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies. IPH6401/SAR’514 is a BCMA-targeting NK cell engager using Sanofi’s proprietary CROSSODILE® multi-functional platform, which comprises the Cross-Over-Dual-Variable-Domain (CODV) format. It induces a dual targeting of the NK activating receptors, NKp46 and CD16, for an optimized NK cell activation, based on Innate’s ANKET^TM proprietary platform.

Under the terms of the original license agreement, Sanofi is responsible for the development, manufacturing and commercialization of products resulting from the research collaboration. Innate Pharma will be eligible to up to €400m in development and commercial milestone payments as well as royalties on net sales. To date, €13m milestone payments to Innate have been announced.